Record-changer gramophones

ABSTRACT

In an automatic record changer in which the pickup-arm movements are controlled by a cam groove and the record release mechanism is operated by a circumferential cam, the engagement of the camtrip pawl at the beginning of automatic play, the transfer of the hand-control lever from an AUTO position to a MANUAL position during the first revolution of the cams, and the retention of the pickup arm in the rest position and eventual switching off of the motor at the end of a revolution in which no record is available on the shoulder of the record spindle, is effected with the help of a cycle-control lever capable of pivotal movement about and longitudinal movement relative to a fulcrum pin, this lever having an edge formed with a sawtooth whose face causes the cycle-control lever to follow the longitudinal movement of a catch lever linked to the switch lever as the latter is moved by a hand lever from OFF position to a manual or auto position and retained there by steps in an aperture of the mounting plate, movement of the cycle-control lever to the latter position producing, via a resilient cam member, engagement of the trip pawl for a revolution of the cam wheel, whereafter engagement of a pin of the cam wheel with a cam acting on the cycle-control lever lifts lug 24 clear of auto step 29 causing the lug to return resiliently to the manual step. A release lever connected to the record-release pawl, after release of the last record, beyond its position of rest, engaging the cycle control lever to lift its sawtooth off the pawl of the catch lever, thereby tilting the catch lever to move the cam into the path of the camwheel pin which, near the end of the revolution of the cam wheel, causes return pivotal movement of the cycle-control lever, lifting the lug of the catch lever off the manual step, thus allowing resilient return of the switch lever and hand-control lever to their STOP positions.

limited States Patent inventor [7 2] Edward William John Caddy llford, England [21] Appl. No. 875,611 [22] Filed Nov. 12, 1969 [45] Patented Dec. 7, 1971 [73] Assignee The Plessey Company Limited lliord, England [32] Priority Nov. 12, 1968 [33] Great Britain 53,593/68 [54] RECORD-CHANGER GRAMOPHONES 4 Claims, 1 1 Drawing Figs.

[52] [1.8. Cl 274/R [51] lnt.Cl ..Glld /00,

G1 ld 17/00 Field oi Search 274/10 R [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,460,840 8/1969 Koepke 274/10 R 3,534,967 10/1970 Freier... 274/10 R 2,982,553 5/l96l Wolfe 274/l0R Primary Examiner-Harry N Haroian Anorney-Blum, Mosvotiz, Friedman & Kaplan ABSTRACT: In an automatic record changer in which the pickup-arm movements are controlled by a cam groove and the record release mechanism is operated by a circumferential cam, the engagement of the cam-trip pawl at the beginning of automatic play, the transfer of the hand-control lever from an AUTO position to a MANUAL position during the first revolution of the cams. and the retention of the pickup arm in the rest position and eventual switching off of the motor at the end of a revolution in which no record is available on the shoulder of the record spindle, is effected with the help of a cycle-control lever capable of pivotal movement about and longitudinal movement relative to a fulcrum pin, this lever having an edge formed with a sawtooth whose face causes the cycle-control lever to follow the longitudinal movement of a catch lever linked to the switch lever as the latter is moved by a hand lever from OFF position to a manual or auto position and retained there by steps in an aperture of the mounting plate, movement of the cycle-control lever to the latter position producing, via a resilient cam member, engagement of the trip pawl for a revolution of the cam wheel, whereafter engagement of a pin of the cam wheel with a cam acting on the cyclecontrol lever lifts lug 24 clear of auto step 29 causing the lug to return resiliently to the manual step. A release lever connected to the record-release pawl, after release of the last record, beyond its position of rest, engaging the cycle control lever to lift its sawtooth off the pawl of the catch lever. thereby tilting the catch lever to move the cam into the path of the cam-wheel pin which, near the end of the revolution of the cam wheel, causes return pivotal movement of the cycle-control lever, lifting the lug of the catch lever off the manual step, thus allowing resilient return of the switch lever and hand-control lever to their STOP positions.

q 102 I03 ll 9 n7 n4 54 92 4 mo 49 39 12 I0] (/4 X I mus; 44 9 a l :52 67 5 6 H 4 36 ,I 34 9 n 6/ 35 so 62 12 45 56 2 s 5 J I 57 r I 27 ,76 s

PATENTEDBEI: Han 3.625521 SHEET 1 [IF 6 PATENTEU DEC H97! SHEEI 2 BF 6 PATENTEU DEC 7 I97! SHEET 3 BF 6 PATENTED DEC 7 mm SHEET UF 6 PATENTED DEB 7197i .SHEET 5 [1F 6 PATENTEU DEC 7 I971 SHEET 6 BF 6 RECORD-CHANGER GRAMOPHONES This invention relates to record-changer gramophones and has for an object to provide an improved mechanism for a record-changer gramophone which lends itself to the manufacture of efiective record changers of relatively small bulk and/or of low cost of manufacture considering their efficacy. Another object is to provide an improved record-changer gramophone mechanism which makes it possible, inter alia, to play automatically a record which has been placed manually on the turntable so that the mechanism will raise the pickup arm from its rest, cause it to be deposited into the lead-in groove of a record of a selected diameter, then allowing the record to be played and, after completion of the play, automatically to return the pickup arm to its rest and switch off the tumtable-drive motor. A still further object is to provide mechanism which enables these operations, as well as the playing of a record placed on the turntable by hand and with the pickup arm deposited manually at a desired distance from the turntable center followed by automatic return of the pickup arm to its rest and switching off of the motor or as the consecutive play of records of a stack placed on a center spindle to be effected, with high reliability and with the mechanism having relatively few parts. According to the present invention the mechanism of a record-changer gramophone includes a cycle-control lever which is arranged for cooperation with a manually operated setting element, such as a hand lever for selecting the kind of operation required, with a switch operating lever, capable of being actuated by the setting element, and with a release lever operable by a cam surface on the usual cam wheel which during each changing operation is driven from the turntable, and which has a gap in its toothed circumference to interrupt its engagement with a pinion on the turntable spindle at the end of each complete revolution of the cam wheel, and actuating means for a record-ejector pawl, accommodated in a slot of a shouldered record spindle, to eject, near the beginning of each revolution of the cam wheel, a record from the shoulder to deposit it on the turntable, and also to sense, prior to such ejection movement, whether there is a record on the shoulder ready to be ejected, said release lever being arranged, in the absence of such record, to displace, at least when the setting element is in a predetermined position, the cycle-control lever in such manner as to cause tripping of the switch mechanism and automatic return of the hand lever or the like and cyclecontrol lever to an ofi position. Preferably the cycle-control lever also carries a cam member which, on displacement of the cycle-control lever to an auto position beyond a normal on position, produces engagement of a cam-trip pawl with a catch tooth of the turntable spindle so as to initiate a revolution of the cam wheel. Preferably this cam member is arranged to engage for this purpose a trip-operating lever which is pivoted about the pivot of the cam-trip pawl and friction-coupled with the latter so as to allow the pawl to be moved clear of the catch tooth by repelling action of the latter when, during the terminal part of the play of a record, the actuating movement of the friction lever is less than a predetermined amount, while being effective to produce driving engagement of the trip pawl with the catch tooth when the actuating movement of the friction lever exceeds such predetermined amount.

In order that the features of the present invention should be more readily understood, the relevant parts of one form of record-changer mechanism including embodiments of various features of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a somewhat schematic perspective view of the mechanism,

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the elements involved in the operation of the record-release and switch-actuating mechanism, shown switched off in the rest position,

FIG. 3 shows the top portion of the record spindle with the record-release pawl in the corresponding position,

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary plan view showing some of the elements involved in FIG. 2 which are not clearly visible, due to overlapping of the various parts,

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the parts shown in FIG. 2 but illustrating their position immediately after switching on for manual operation,

FIG. 6 is a corresponding scrap view showing the position of the catch lever in relation to the guide edge of the mounting plate,

FIG. 7 is a corresponding scrap view showing the elements of the trip mechanism,

FIG. 8 is a plane view of the parts shown in FIGS. 2 and 5 in the position these parts assume immediately after the hand lever has been moved to the position for automatic play,

FIG. 9 is a scrap view similar to that of FIG. 7 but with the parts in the position they assume at the moment illustrated in FIG. 8,

FIG. 10 shows the corresponding position of the catch lever at the end of the cycle-control lever in cooperation with the cammed slot of the mounting plate, and

FIG. 11 is a plan view showing the same parts as in FIG. 2 and illustrates the automatic setting of the trip mechanism after the start of a change cycle when, with the cycle-control lever in the manual position no record is left on the shoulder of the record spindle.

Referring now first to FIG. 1, a gramophone turntable I on which records rest during play, is rotatably mounted on a mounting plate 2, which also carries an electric motor drive (not shown) adapted to drive the turntable 1 in the customary manner through a friction roller (not shown) which engages a drive flange of the turntable 1. The turntable has an axial bore through which a nonrotary record spindle 3 extends. In addition to centering the records on the turntable, this spindle 3, which is secured on the mounting plate 2 so as not to participate in the rotation of the turntable 1, also serves as a magazine for supporting a stack of records at a distance above the turntable. A pickup arm 4 is supported on the mounting plate 2 by a bracket 183 on a vertical spindle 5, to which the bracket is connected for common rotation about the axis of the spindle. The illustrated device also comprises a stabilizing arm 6, which rests on the uppermost record of a stack supported on the spindle 3 to assist in ensuring a substantially horizontal position of the records carried on the spindle 3.

In order to obtain a drive for the mechanism used for successively releasing records from the stack on the spindle for deposition on the turntable, and for the mechanism employed for moving the pickup arm so as to be clear of the records when they are thus released to be deposited on the turntable in order to be played, the record changer is equipped in a now customary manner with a toothed cam wheel 7 which is rotatable about a journal pin 53 and can be driven from the turntable by engagement with a drive pinion 8. The cam wheel 7 has a tooth gap (not shown) permitting the drive pinion 8 to rotate without engagement with the teeth of the cam wheel 7 when the latter is in the position it assumes for the play of a record after'deposition of the pickup arm, but it can, when in this position, be coupled to the pinion 8, for commencing a change cycle, by a trip pawl 9 pivoted to the cam wheel at 10 for movement into and out of engagement with a catch tooth 11 which rotates with the pinion 8. The pivotal movement of the trip pawl 9 is limited by an upstanding pin 118 on cam wheel 7, which extends with suitable play into a slot 119 of the pawl 9.

The driving motor of the record changer is controlled by a switch 12 (see FIGS. 2,5, 8 and 11), whose plunger 15 is actuated by cooperation with a cam surface 13 of a switch lever 14, which is attached to the mounting plate 2 by a pivot 16, and which has three positions, namely an off position, shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in which the switch plunger 15 is in its outer or off position, a manual or normal on position illustrated in FIG. 5, and a third position illustrated in FIG. 8 and called auto, which the lever 14 assumes when the record changer is first set for automatic play. It will be seen that the shape of the switching cam I3 is such that movement of the switch lever 14 from the off position to the manual position will move the switch plunger 15 from its off position to its on position, while further movement of switch lever 14 from its manual position to its auto position shown in FIG. 8 does not further affect the position of the switch plunger 15.

Movement of the switch lever 14 from the off position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 to either the manual position shown in FIG. 5 or, via the latter, to the auto position shown in FIG. 8 is effected by moving a hand lever 17, which is pivoted in the mounting plate 2 by a pivot stud 18, in an anticlockwise direction (as seen in the drawings). The hand lever 17 is coupled to the switch lever 14 by a linkage including a link 19, one end of which is pivoted at 21 to the hand lever 17, and a floating catch lever 20, one end of which is pivoted at 22 to the switch lever 14, and to which the second end of the link 19 is pivoted at a point 23 between the pivot 22 and an upstanding lug 24 of the catch lever 20. This lug 24 extends through the base plate 2 which, for this purpose, has an aperture 25 whose front forms a guide edge 26 which from its right-hand end rises in two steps 28 and 29 to its left-hand end (as seen in the drawing) where it terminates at an abutment surface 27 facing to the right. The abutment surface 27 and the steps 28 and 29 respectively determine, in cooperation with the lug 24 of the catch lever 20, the off position, the manual position, and the auto position of the switch lever 14, and a tension spring 30, one end of which is attached to the catch lever 20 beyond its pivot 22, is arranged in such direction as to not only bias the catch lever 20 in an anticlockwise direction about its pivot 22 on the switch lever 14, thus urging its lug 24 into engagement with the front edge 26 of the mounting-plate aperture 25, but also to bias, when the catch lever 20 is restrained from such pivotal movement, the switch lever 14 in a clockwise direction, thus urging it to its ofi position. The link 19 is arranged to extend in such a direction as to assist the anticlockwise action of spring 30 on catch lever 20 the hand lever 17 is moved to effect switching on of the motor, and to oppose the anticlockwise action of spring 30 and to lift the lug 24 of the catch lever 20 off the steps 29 or 28 of the mountingplate aperture 25 when the hand lever 17 is moved in the opposite (switching-off) direction.

When the motor has been switched on by operation of the hand lever 17, it is necessary, in order to initiate a revolution of the cam wheel 7, to move the trip pawl 9 to a position in which it will be engaged by the catch tooth ll of the turntable spindle. In order to permit such engagement to be effected automatically at the end of the play of each record, the cam wheel 7 further carries a lever 31, which is pivoted about the same pivot pin as the trip pawl 9, and which is friction-coupled with the trip pawl 9. This lever 31, which will hereinafter be referred to as friction lever, is additionally coupled to the trip pawl 9 by lost-motion engagement of a pin 38 of friction lever 31 into the slot 119 of the trip pawl 9. The friction lever 31 has an upturned end 32, and the pickup-arm spindle 5 caries an element 33, hereinafter called pickup plate, which participates in the pivotal movement of the pickup arm about the axis of the spindle 5. The pickup plate has an end face 34 which is arranged to strike, when the pickup arm in its movement towards the center of a record being played reaches a predetermined position, the upturned end 32 of the friction lever 31 and thus to frictionally move the trip pawl 9 towards the path of the catch tooth 11 by an amount determined by the pitch of the groove with which the stylus on the pickup arm 4 cooperates. In a known-per-se manner the cooperating faces of the catch tooth 11 and trip pawl 9 are so arranged that when the amount of penetration of the pawl 9 into this path is small, corresponding to the pitch of a playing groove of a record, the catch tooth 11 will repel the trip pawl 9 to a position just clear of the path of the catch tooth, while when the depth of penetration is greater, corresponding to the pitch of the running-out groove of a record, the pawl 9 will be so engaged by the catch tooth 11 as to drive the cam wheel 7 and thus to place one of the teeth of the cam wheel 7 into engagement with the teeth of pinion 8. This causes the cam wheel to carry out a complete revolution near the end of which the friction lever 31 will be returned to its initial position relative to the cam wheel 7 by the cooperation of a lug 35 of the friction lever 31, which extends downwardly through an aperture 36 in the cam wheel 7, with a fixed reset cam 37 (FIG. 2). This return movement of the friction lever 31 also returns the trip pawl 9 to its fully retracted position determined by the stop pin 119.

Referring now to FIG. 5, if the hand lever 17 has been in the off position, with the gap of the cam wheel 7 facing the pinion 8, and the hand lever is then moved to the manual position, switch 12 will be closed and the motor will start to drive the turntable, and when the hand lever is now released, engagement of the lug 24 of catch lever 20 with the manual step 28 of the guide edge 26 of the mounting-plate aperture 25 will prevent the spring 30 from returning the switch lever 14 to the stop position, so that the motor will continue running. This will allow the pickup arm 4 to be manually placed on a record to be played, which has been placed onto the turntable, and when the play of the record has been completed, the rapid inward movement of the pickup arm produced by engagement of the running-out groove will produce a tripping operation of trip pawl 9 and thereby start a revolution of the cam wheel 7. In the absence of a record on the shoulder 39 of the record spindle 3 this revolution is utilized in a manner which will be described further below to deposit the pickup arm 4 on the usual pickup rest (not shown) and then to switch off the motor just before the gap of cam wheel 7 faces the pinion 8 of the turntable spindle.

During automatic play of records carried on the spindle 3, the cam wheel 7 is required, during each revolution, first to move the pickup arm 4 outwardly clear of the turntable, then to cause the lowermost record of the stack resting on the shoulder 39 of the spindle 3 to be deposited on the turntable, thereafter to move the pickup arm inwardly towards the turntable axis to a position in which the pickup stylus faces the starting groove of a selected-diameter record then to deposit the pickup on the record placed on the turntable and free the pickup arm from any angular coercion so as to allow it to follow, during play, the playing groove of the record.

In the illustrated record changer the operation of the pickup arm is controlled by a cam groove 40 at the underside of the cam wheel 7. This cam groove moves a cam-follower pin 41 on a drive lever 42 towards and away from the cam-wheel axis, and the operation of the record-release mechanism is controlled by a circumferentially acting cam 44 of the cam wheel 7. The latter cam cooperates with a follower pin 45 which projects from a release lever 46 secured to the mounting plate for movement about a pin 47. The release lever 46 has a radially extending slot 48 which is engaged by the lower end of an elongated record-release pawl 49. This record-release pawl is guided in a diametric slot extending along the record spindle, in which it is pivotally movable about a central point and also capable of slight downward sliding movement, against a very light spring, (not shown) from its illustrated position The follower pin 45 of the release lever 46 is held in resilient contact with the circumferentially acting cam 44 due to the fact that the above-mentioned spring 30, whose one end is attached to the catch lever 20, is attached with its other end to the release lever 46 at a suitable point on the latter. The shape of the cam 44 will be best seen in FIG. 2. Bearing in mind that the rotation of the cam wheel 7 is anticlockwise from the inoperative position illustrated in FIG. 2, it will be seen that the circumference of cam 44 has a recessed portion 50, which is reached after a short angle of rotation from the inoperative position, and which is followed itself by a projecting portion 51 which in turn is followed by a part-circular portion 52 coaxial with the cam wheel 7. This part-circular portion extends over the remaining part of the cam circumference and is operative over substantially the latter half of a full rotation of the cam wheel. At the beginning of a change cycle the position of pawl 49 substantially corresponds to that illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, in which the follower pin 45 in contact with the circular portion 52 of the cam 44. The record-release pawl 49, due to its spring-loading, normally projects above the level of the shoulder 39 so that, when a record rests on the shoulder 39,

the central hole of that record prevents pivotal movement of the pawl 49 under the action of spring 30 beyond a distance equal to the diameter of the record hole from the root of the shoulder 39 and the follower pin 45 is therefore unable to follow, under the action of spring 30, the profile of the recessed cam portion 50 but will remain in the illustrated position until it strikes the projecting portion 51 of the cam 44. The engagement of the follower pin 45 with this projecting portion produces anticlockwise movement of the release lever 46, causing the record-release pawl 49 to move to the right of FIG. 3 and thereby to push the bottom record from the shoulder 39, causing it to slide down the spindle 3 on to the turntable. Thereafter the weight of any records remaining in the stack will depress the pawl 49 to the level of the shoulder 39 as the bottom record is guided on to the shoulder by a guide pawl 54 of the spindle 3, whereafter the lever and pawl 49 return to the angular position illustrated in H0. 3. During this angular return movement the pawl 49 will rise again in the guide slot of the spindle 3 to its illustrated level as soon as its end clears that portion of the hole of the next-following record which rests on the shoulder 39. The circular portion 52 of the cam 44 then retains the pawl 49 in its illustrated angular position irrespective of whether or not any record is left on the shoulder 39.

The described operation of the cam 44 varies when at the beginning of a cycle no record rests on the shoulder 39. In this case the upper end of the record-release pawl 49 is free to move, under the action of the spring 30, outwardly beyond the position illustrated in FIG. 3, thus allowing the follower pin 45 on the release lever 46 to move into the recess 50 of the cam 44, and the resulting additional pivotal movement of the release lever 46 is utilized for causing, by means of a release pin 55 projecting upwardly from the release lever 46, the pickup arm to be arrested in its rest position outside the turntable and the motor to be switched off at the end of the cycle. A cycle-control lever 56, which utilizes the movement of the release lever 46 to effect automatic stopping of the motor drive when the playing of a record is completed and no other record remains on the shoulder 39, and also to operate the trip pawl 9 to initiate a first revolution of the cam wheel 7 when the hand lever 17 has been moved to the auto position, connected to the mounting plate 2 by means of a pivot pin 57 which projects from the mounting plate and extends through an aperture 58 of the cycle-control lever 56. This aperture is elongated in the longitudinal direction of that lever so as to allow the cycle-control lever 56 not only to move pivotally about the pin 57 but also to move longitudinally relative to it. A spring 59 is so interposed between the cycle-control lever 56 and the mounting plate 2 that it tends to move the lever 56 longitudinally towards the left-hand side of the drawing and also to move it about the pivot pin 57 in a clockwise direction. The pivot pin 57 supporting the cycle-control lever 56 additionally serves as pivot for a stop lever 60, which is lost-motion coupled to the cycle-control lever 56 by a coupling pin 61 which is fixed to the cycle-control lever 56 and extends with lateral play through a longitudinal slot 62 of the stop lever 60. A spring 63 anchored to the mounting plate 2 acts on the stop lever 60 to bias it in an anticlockwise direction (always as seen in the drawings), position, is urging an upstanding lug 64 of the stop lever 60 into engagement with a locking recess 65 of the pickup plate 33 to arrest the pickup arm in an angular position suitable for cooperation with a pickup rest (not shown). The stop lever 60 has a laterally projecting cam portion 66, which extends into the path of an actuating pin 67 that projects downwardly from the cam wheel 7.

When the cam wheel 7 is in its inoperative position, this actuating pin 67 is in contact with an edge 68 of the cam portion 66 near the left-hand end of the stop lever 60, and an edge portion 170 (FIG. 11) of the cycle-control lever 56 which faces the turntable axis is held by the resilient action of the spring 59 against the lug 24 of the catch lever 20. This edge portion 170 is provided with a shoulder 69 which faces the lug 24 and forms the end of a sawtooth-shaped projection 70.

When the lug 24 rests against the end surface 27 of the mounting-plate aperture 25 and the right-hand end of the slot 53 of the cycle-control lever 56 rests against the pivot pin 57, this shoulder 69 is spaced from the lug 24 by a distance somewhat less than that separating the lug 24 from the manual step 28 of the aperture 25. The cycle-control lever 56 is provided with a shaped aperture 71, through which the release pin 55 of the release lever 46 extends. This aperture has a width, transversely to the length of the lever 56, which is substantially greater than the diameter of the pin 55, and which is greatest at that end of the aperture 25 which faces the stop lever 60 and smallest at the opposite end of that aperture.

lf, beginning from the position illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 in which the hand lever 17 and switch lever 14 are in their stop and off positions. respectively and the cam wheel 7 is in its inoperative position, the hand lever 17 is moved in an anticlockwise direction to the manual position shown in FIG. 5 to close the switch 12 and engage the lug 24 of the catch lever 20 with the manual step 28 of the mounting-plate aperture 25, the lug 24 will, on its path, engage the shoulder 69 of the saw tooth 70 of the cycle-control lever 56 and, will thus, during the subsequent part of its movement, cause the cycle-control lever 56 to move longitudinally towards the right relative to its pivot pin 57, so that the pin 55 of the release lever 46 now faces the projecting portion 73 at the front edge of the aperture 81 in the cycle-control lever 56. If a record is then manually placed on the turntable and the pickup arm is manually placed on to the record (an operation which is possible because the cooperation of actuating pin 67 with the cam edge 68 prevents the lug 64 of stop lever 60, at this position of the cam wheel 7, from engaging the locking recess 65 of the pickup plate 33), the abutment edge face 34 of the pickup plate 33 will, at the end of the play of the record, strike the tab 32 of friction lever 31, causing the latter to engage the trip pawl 9, and will thus initiate a counterclockwise revolution of the cam wheel 7. At the beginning of this revolution the actuating pin 67 will move clear of the cam 66, while at the same time the pin of release lever 46 comes to face the recessed portion of the cam 44 which, in the absence of a record on the shoulder 39, it is free to enter under the action of the spring 30, producing, in doing so, clockwise movement of the release lever 46 about its pivot pin 47. The pin of the release lever 46 will therefore act on the nonrecessed edge portion 73 of the aperture 71 in the cycle-control lever 56, thus producing an anticlockwise movement of the cycle-control lever which will move the shoulder of the latter clear of the lug 24 of catch lever 20. As a result of this disengagement spring 59 will therefore be free to move the cycle-control lever 56 towards the left until the end of its slot 58 abuts the pivot pin 57. The pin 55 of the release lever 46 then faces once more the recess 72 in the edge of the aperture 71, and the raised back surface of the sawtooth rests against the lug 24 of the catch lever 20, thus approximately retaining the cycle-control lever in its angular position to which it had been moved by the action of the pin 55 on its surface 73. Owing to that anticlockwise displacement of the cycle-control lever 56 as compared to its position shown in FIG. 2, the coupling pin 61 of the cycle-control lever has become disengaged from the outer edge of the slot 62 in the stop lever 60, so that the slot 62 no longer prevents the spring 63 from moving the lug 64 of stop lever 60 towards the axis of the pickup plate 33. As long as the pickup arm is in a position inwardly of the pickup rest, the lug 64 will however ride on the edge 74 of the plate as during the continuation of the rotation of cam wheel 7, the drive lever 42, actuated by the cam groove 40 moves the pickup arm outwardly until, when the arm 4 reaches its rest position, the lug 64 will engage the locking recess 65. The subsequent movement of the drive lever 42 in the opposite direction can therefore not produce any inward movement of the pickup arm but will cause the latter ultimately to be deposited on the pickup rest. The pivotal bias produced by the spring 59 upon the cycle-control lever 56 is arranged to be insufficient to produce clockwise pivotal movement of the lever 56 about its pin 57 and at the same time to lift against the action of the spring 30, the lug 24 of the catch lever 20 clear of the manual step 28 of the mounting-plate aperture 25. The catch lever 20, and with it the switch lever 14 and the hand lever 17, therefore remain in their manual positions. As the anticlockwise movement of the cam wheel 7 continues, the projecting portion 51 of the cam 44 produces a record-release movement of the record-release pawl 49 although, in the absence of a record on the shoulder 39, this does not cause any record to be deposited. The cam 51 then allows the pawl 49 to move back to its illustrated position, accompanied by a clockwise movement of the release lever 46 which had moved anticlockwise during the record-release operation. This clockwise movement of the release lever 46 is terminated at the normal position of the lever 46 by the engagement of the pin 45 with the circular portion 52 of the cam 44. Shortly before the completion of the revolution of the cam wheel 7, and after the trip-pawl mechanism has been reset by the reset cam 37, the actuating pin 67 on the cam wheel 7 will strike the edge surface 68 of cam projection 66 of the stop lever 60 which, when moved by its spring 63 to engage with its lug 64 the locking recess 65 of the pickup plate 33, has been pivotally moved in an anticlockwise direction from the normal position illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. The resulting cooperation of the actuating pin 67 with cam surface 68 will produce clockwise movement of the stop lever 60 to disengage its lug 64 from a recess 65 of the pickup plate 33 and is transmitted by the slot 62 and pin 61 to the cycle control lever 56 causing the same to lift the lug 24 clear of the step 28 of the guide edge 26 of the aperture 25. This allows the spring 30 to move the catch lever 20 to a position in which its lug 24 abuts the end surface 27 of the aperture 25, and in which both the hand lever 17 and the switch lever 14 are in their respective stop and off positions, causing the motor drive to become inoperative; the inertia of the turntable is however sufiicient for the pinion 8 to reach the gap in the teeth of the cam wheel 7.

It will be readily appreciated from the foregoing description that if, in addition to the record placed on the turntable, a stack of further records had been placed on the shoulder 39, the bottom record of the stack would have prevented the outward movement of the record-release pawl 49 and thus the clockwise movement of the release lever 46 which is required for the follower pin 45 to enter the recess 50 of the cam 44, and that in these circumstances the pin 55 would produce no action on the cycle-control lever 56 while on the other hand the record-release operation of the pawl 49 produced by the cam 44 would cause, when the trip pawl 9 has been rendered operative after the play of the first record, a further record to be deposited on the turntable and played automatically and so on until, after deposition of the last record of the stack on to the turntable, the pawl 49 would be free to move outwardly as above described thus allowing the described stopping operation to take place at the end of the play of the record in question.

If finally, instead of depositing the pickup manually on a record on the turntable and moving the hand lever to the manual position, the hand lever 17 is moved beyond the manual position to the auto position, the lug 24 of the catch lever 20 will move past the first or manual step 28 to the second or auto step 29 in the guide edge 26 of the mountingplate aperture 25 and will also, after engaging the shoulder 69 of sawtooth 70, move the cycle-control lever 56 to the right sufficiently to reach the auto position illustrated in FIG. 8. This movement of the cycle-control lever is utilized for moving the trip pawl 9 to its engagement position by means of a starter cam 75 (see FIGS. 7 and 9) which is provided on a lever 76 which hereinafter is called cam lever, and which is ivoted at 77 to the cycle-control lever 56. This cam lever 76 is equipped with a hairpin spring 78 which, during the approach to the auto position of the cycle-control lever 56, cooperates with a fixed post 79 to urge the cam 75 against the lug 35 of the friction lever 31 when the latter is in the withdrawn position with the cam wheel in its position of rest so that, during the movement of cycle-control lever 56 from the manual to the auto position, the starter cam 75 moves the lug 35 towards the axis of the cam wheel, thus producing anticlockwise movement of the friction lever 31 and engagement of the trip pawl 9 with the catch tooth ll of the turntable spindle. As a result the cam wheel 7 now commences one complete revolution. The commencement of this revolution places the follower pin 45 of the release lever 46 to face the recess 50 of the circumferential cam 44, but this cannot result in clockwise movement of the release lever 46, even if the only record present is one placed manually on the turntable, because although the release pin 55 acts under spring pressure against the front edge portion 73 of the aperture 71 of cyclecontrol lever 56, it is unable to displace the cycle-control lever 56 in a clockwise direction about its pivot 57 because when the cycle-control lever is in its auto position, an edge portion 80 of the cycle-control lever rests against the fixed post 79 which was previously mentioned as the support against which the hairpin spring 78 rests when the cycle-control lever 56 is in its auto position. The follower pin 45 WI" therefore traverse the recess 50 of cam 44 without entering it, and thus without producing any action which could arrest the pickup arm when it reaches its position of rest or initiate, or lead to, a switch-off operation of the motor at the end of the first revolution of the cam wheel 7. The record-playing cycle will therefore proceed in the same manner as previously described in the case in which the hand lever 17 was moved to the manual position with a record resting on the shoulder 39, thus allowing the play of a record which has been manually placed on the turntable to be automatically effected and completed or, in the case when a record or a stack of records has been placed on the shoulder 39, the first of these records to be released and played in the normal manner. When, during the further progress of the first revolution of the cam wheel 7, the follower pin 45 approaches the apex of the projecting cam portion 51 of the circumferential cam 44, the resulting anticlockwise movement of the release lever 46, in conjunction with the fact that, owing to the inclination of the stepped guide edge 26 of the mounting-plate aperture 25, the cycle-control lever 56 in its auto position is displaced in an anticlockwise direction from the position illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, causes the release-lever pin 55 to strike the outer edge 81 of the aperture 71 in the cycle-control lever and thus to produce on the tenninal part of this anticlockwise movement of release lever 46, a clockwise movement of the cycle-control lever 56 sufficient to lift the lug 24 of catch lever 20 clear of the auto step 29 of mounting-plate aperture 25. The switch lever 14 is however, at this time, prevented from movement under the action of spring 30 to its manual position shown in FIG. 5 and thus placing the lug 24 of the catch lever 20 against the manual step 28 of the mounting-plate aperture 25 because a lug 82 which as shown in FIG. 1, projects downwardly from the drive lever 42, engages a projection 83 (see FIG. 8) of the switch lever 14 which latter, as previously mentioned, is coupled to the catch lever 20 by the pin 22. As the revolution of cam wheel 7 proceeds, the drive lever 42 carries out an anticlockwise movement which serves to initiate the pickup-arm positioning movement prior to the beginning of the play of a record, and this anticlockwise movement of the drive lever 42 moves the lug 82 at an acute angle to the direction of the movement which projection 83 of the switch lever 14 tends to carry out under the action of its bias spring 30. This movement of the drive-lever lug 82 therefore now allows the switch lever 14 to gradually proceed with its movement, in accordance with the movement of the lug 82 until finally, just before lug 24 of the catch lever 20 reaches the manual step 28, the lug 82 moves clear of the path of the projection 83, thus allowing the movement of the catch-lever lug 24 to the manual step 28 and the corresponding movement of the cycle-control lever 56 to be completed freely under the action of the catch-lever spring 22 and the cycle-control lever spring 59. As the cycle-control lever 56 thus returns, jointly with the lug 24 of the catch lever 20, to the manual position, it withdraws the cam lever 76 from the position shown in FIG. 9, in which it would have caused immediate reengagement of the trip pawl 9 on completion of the first revolution of the cam wheel 7, to the position illustrated in H0. 7 in which, as shown in that Figure, the starter cam 75 is clear of the lug 35 of the friction lever 31 and the pin 38 of the friction lever 31 retains the trip pawl 9 in its fully withdrawn position. Accordingly, before the first revolution of the cam wheel 7 is completed, the cycle-control lever 56, the switch lever 14, and the hand lever 17 have all assumed their manual positions, thus allowing, at the end of the play of the first record, the playing of any further records left on the shoulder 39 and in the absence of such records, a final revolution of the cam wheel 7 sewing to return the pickup arm to its rest and to switch off the motor, to be carried out exactly as above described for the case in which the hand lever 17 was originally moved to the manual position.

The actuation of the pickup-arm plate 33 for movement of the pickup arm about its vertical spindle and for lifting the pickup ann clear of any records resting on the turntable may be derived from the drive lever 42 in any desired manner, but in the illustration of FIG. 1 it has been assumed to be effected by the mechanism described in our copending application Ser. No. 875,612, which has been assigned to the assignees of the present application, and to which reference should be made for details of the mechanism involved.

it will be apparent from the reading of the foregoing description of the apparatus of the present invention that the hand lever 17 should be set in the following manner to achieve desired types of operation.

1. in order to play manually a single record placed manually on the turntable, the hand lever 17 should be moved from the stop position to the manual position, and the pickup arm then placed manually into the starting groove of the record. In this case at the end of the play of the record the pickup arm will be placed automatically on its rest and the motor will switch itself off due to operation of the trip pawl at the end of the play and the absence of restraint on outward movement of the recordrelease pawl 49, and thus on the clockwise movement of the release lever 46 by the hole of a record during the revolution of the cam wheel 7 thus initiated.

2. In order to play automatically a record after placing it on the turntable manually, or to play automatically a record, or consecutive records of a stack placed on the shoulder 39, the hand lever 17 is moved to the auto position. This starts the cam wheel 7 for one revolution, during which the lowermost record on the shoulder (if any) will be deposited on the turntable and played, and the during this revolution, the hand lever 17 will automatically shift to the manual position irrespective of whether or not there is another record left on the spindle. The termination of play of the record on the turntable will once more trip the cam wheel 7 and, according to whether or not any records are left on the shoulder 39, this revolution will either cause the next-following record to be deposited and played or, in the absence of such record, will cause the pickup arm to be moved to its rest position and there deposited and the motor then to be switched off, returning the hand lever to the stop position.

3. When the play of a record has been started, either automatically or manually, and it is desired to reject the record, that is to say to cause the pickup arm to be automatically lifted off the record, followed by the play of any further record remaining on the shoulder or, in the absence of such record, by the return of the pickup arm to its rest and the switching off of the motor, the hand lever 17 is moved from the manual to the auto position and immediately returned to the manual position.

4. When it is desired to stop the turntable without removal of the pickup from the record groove, the hand lever 17 is moved from the manual position to the stop position.

What we claim is:

1. A gramophone record-changer mechanism comprising in combination a mounting member (2), a motor-driven, normally horizontal turntable (1) rotatably supported on said member (2); a cam wheel (7); means for coupling said cam wheel to be driven by the turntable (l) for individual change cycles of the mechanism; a pickup arm (4) pivotally movable towards and away from the turntable center about a vertical axis (5), a pickup plate (33) movable about said axis jointly with the pickup arm (4) and having a guide edge (74) terminating at a locking recess (65); a disengageable driving mechanism operable by the cam wheel (7) to move the pickup arm (4) towards and away from the turntable center, said driving mechanism including a friction connection, means for supporting a record spindle (3) to project upwardly from the center of the turntable (1) without participating in the rotation thereof, a release lever (46) cooperating with said cam wheel for yielding pivotal movement in a first direction from a central position at an early point of each change cycle and subsequent movement in a second direction, opposite to said first direction beyond said central position, a switch lever (14) having an on and an off position for the drive of said motor driven turntable (11); a manually operable setting lever (17) coupled to the switch lever (14) and having a manual, an auto, and a stop position for respectively selecting manual or automatic operation or cessation of operation of the mechanism; a catch lever (20) yieldingly attached to the switch lever l4) and having a lug (24), the mounting member (2) being formed with a guide edge (26) having receding steps forming retaining shoulders (28, 29) for cooperation with said lug (24) to prevent reverse movement of the switch lever (14) and the setting lever (17) when the setting lever (17) during movement away from its stop position reaches the manual and auto positions respectively; spring means (30) urging the catch lever (20) into engagement with the said guide edge (26) said retaining shoulders being so inclined as to lift the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) up the steps of the guide edge (26) against the bias of the spring means (30) when the setting lever (17) is manually moved in the direction from its auto position via its manual position to its stop position, a stop lever (60) having a stop lug (64) adapted to enter, by pivotal movement of the stop lever (60) the locking recess (65) of the pickup plate (33) when the pickup arm (4) is in a position of rest outside to turntable, bias spring means (63) urging the stop lever (60) in the direction of such engagement, control means (66, 67) associated with the cam wheel (7) and operative to prevent such pivotal movement of the stop lever (60) during the initial stages of each change cycle; a cycle-control lever (56) connected to said mounting member by a pin-andslot connection (57, 58) for pivotal movement about the pin (57) and longitudinal sliding movement along the slot (58) of said connection to permit longitudinal displacement of the cycle-control lever (56) between a stop position, a manual position, and an auto position in a direction forming a small angle with the mean direction of said guide edge (26), the cycle-control lever (56) having an edge portion which faces the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) at the same side of the lug (24) as said guide edge (26), said edge portion (170) including a step (70) forming an abutment shoulder 69) that faces towards the stop position of the catch-lever lug (24) spring means (59) urging the cycle-control lever (56) longitudinally towards the off position and pivotally into contact of its said edge portion with the catch-lever lug (24) of the abutment shoulder (69) of the said step (70) being so positioned that when the cycle-control lever (56) is held by its spring (59) at its stop position determined by engagement of the pivot pin (57) for the cycle-control lever (56) with the end of the slot (58) of the said pin-and-slot connection (57, 58), said shoulder (69) is engaged by the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) to commence producing longitudinal movement of the cycle-control lever (56) towards its manual and auto positions before the catch-lever lug (24), due to movement of the switch lever 14) from its off position by the setting lever (17), reaches the manual-step shoulder (28) of the guide edge (26) of the mounting member (2); cycle-priming means (75, 76, 78, 79) actuated by the movement of the cycle control lever (56) to its auto position to initiate rotation of the cam wheel (7 for a change cycle; lost-motion coupling means (61, 62) coupling the stop lever (60) as regards its pivotal movement with the cycle-control lever (56) to prevent when the cyclecontrol lever (56) is in either of its auto and manual positions pivotal movement of the stop lever (60) to engage the pickupplate locking recess (65) by its stop lug (64); undirectionally acting pin-and-edge means (55, 58) operative to coupling the cycle-control lever (56) in its auto position with the release lever (46) for causing the movement of the release lever (46) in said second direction to produce pivotal movement of the cycle-control lever (56) to lift the catch-lever lug (24) of the auto-step shoulder (29) of the guide edge (26); further pinand-edge means (55, 83) unidirectionally operative when the cycle-control lever (56) is in its manual position to couple the cycle-control lever (56) with the release lever (46) for causing movement of the release lever (46) in said first direction, to produce angular displacement of the cycle-control lever (56) operative to disengage the abutment shoulder (69) of the step (70) of the edge portion (170) of the cycle-control lever (56) from the catch-lever lug (24) as the latter rests in engagement with the shoulder 28) of the manual step of the guide edge (26) of the mounting member (2) thus allowing the spring means (59) to move the cycle-control lever (56) longitudinally towards its stop position to remove, after angular displacement of the cycle-control lever (56) in the opposite direction the restraint of the stop lever (60) against its pickuplocking pivotal movement, while also causing the step (70), by its engagement with the catch-lever lug (24), to prevent the cycle-control lever spring (59) from producing such opposite angular displacement until, near the end of the cycle, such opposite angular movement of the cycle-control lever (56) and consequential disengagement of the catch-lever lug (24) from the manual shoulder (28) of the guide edge (26) is positively produced by engagement of the actuating portion (67) of the cam wheel (7) with the cam portion (66) of the stop lever (60) and the transmission of the resultant stop-lever movement to the cycle-control lever (56) by the lost-motion connection (61, 62).

2. Mechanism as claimed in claim 1 which includes restraining means (82, 83) operative to control the return of the switch lever (14) under the action of its bias spring (30) from its on position to its off position.

3. A gramophone record-changer mechanism comprising in combination a mounting member (2); a motor-driven normally horizontal turnable (1) rotatably supported on said member (2) and having a turntable pinion (8); a pickup arm (4) pivotally movable towards and away from the turntable center about a vertical axis (5); a pickup plate (33) movable about said axis jointly with the pickup arm (4) and having a guide edge (74) terminating at a locking recess (65); a disengageable driving mechanism operable to move the pickup arm (4) away from and towards the turntable center, said driving mechanism including a friction connection, a toothed cam wheel (7) mounted for driving engagement with said pinion (8) to control the change cycle of the mechanism, said cam wheel (7) having a first cam (40) for the actuation of said pickup-arm driving mechanism, a second cam (44), and an actuating portion (67) and having a gap in its toothed circumference to interrupt such driving engagement at the end of each change cycle; trip means (9, 31) operable to establish a drive from the pinion (8) to the cam wheel (7) during such interruption of engagement, means for supporting, to project upwardly from the center of the turntable (1) without participation in the rotation thereof, a record spindle (3) having a shoulder (39) at one side and equipped with a record-release and sensing pawl (49) mounted in the record spindle (3) for movement transversely of the spindle towards the shoulder (39) to release a record resting on the shoulder (39) for deposition on the turntable (1), and movement away from said shoulder to sense whether a record is present on said shoulder, a release lever (46) operable in one direction by said second cam (44); and spring means (30) urging said release lever (36) in the opposite direction for engagement with said second cam (44), said first cam (44) being so shaped as to allow the spring means (30) to actuate the release lever (46,)

for moving the sensing pawl (49) away from the shoulder (39) of such spindle (3) shortly after the beginning of a rotation cycle of the cam wheel (7) from a position in which such gap of the cam wheel faces the said pinion (8), and to actuate, shortly afterwards, the release lever (46) to move the sensing pawl (49) towards the said shoulder 39; switch lever (14) having an on and an off position for the turntable motor drive; a manually operable setting lever (17) having a manual, an auto and an ofi position for respectively selecting manual or automatic operation or cessation of operation of the mechanism; a two-element linkage (19, 20) interconnecting the setting lever (17) and the switch lever (14), said linkage including a catch lever (20) pivotally connected to the switch lever (14) and normally extending approximately tangentially to the direction of movement of its said pivot connection (22) to the switch lever, said catch lever having a lug (24), and the mounting member (2) having a guide edge (26) for cooperation with said lug (24) of the catch lever (20) to maintain the catch lever (20) in such approximately tangential position against the transversely directed component of the force transmitted to the catch lever by the setting lever 17) through the other element (19) of the linkage when the setting lever (17) is moved in the direction from its off position via its manual position to its auto position; spring means (30) urging the catch lever into engagement with the said guide edge (26), the guide edge having receding steps forming retaining shoulder (28, 29) for cooperation with the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) to oppose movement of the setting lever (17) and switch lever (14) towards their respective stop and off positions when the setting lever (17), during movement away from its stop position reaches its manual and auto positions respectively, said retaining shoulder (28, 24) being so inclined to the direction of said other link element (19) as to lift the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) up said retaining shoulder (28, 29) against the bias of the catch-lever spring (30) when the setting lever (17) is manually moved in the direction from its auto position via its manual position to its stop position; a stop lever (60) having a stop lug (64) adapted to enter, by pivotal movement of the stop lever (60), the locking recess (65) of the pickup plate (33) when the pickup arm (4) is in a position of rest outside the turntable; bias spring means (63) urging the stop lever (60) in the direction of such engagement, the stop lever (60) having a cam portion (66) cooperating with the actuating portion 67 of the cam wheel (7) between change cycles and during the initial stages of each change cycle to prevent the stop lever (60) from movement to effect such engagement; a cycle-control lever (56) connected to said mounting member by a pin-and-slot connection (57, 58) for pivotal movement about the pin (57) and sliding movement longitudinally of the cycle-control lever (56) along the slot (58) of said connection to permit longitudinal displacement of the cycle-control lever (56) between a stop position, a manual position, and an auto position in a direction forming a small angle with the mean direction of said guide edge, the cyclecontrol lever (56) having an edge portion which faces the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) at the same side of the lug (24) as said guide edge, said edge portion (170) including a step (70) forming an abutment shoulder (69) that faces towards the stop position of the catch-lever lug (24); spring means (59) urging the cycle-control (56) longitudinally towards its stop position and pivotally into contact of its said edge portion (170) with the lug (24) of the catch lever (20), the abutment shoulder (69) of said step (70) being so positioned when the cycle-control lever (56) is held by its spring (59) at its stop position determined by engagement of the pivot pin (57) for the cycle-control lever (56) with the end of the slot (58) of the said pin-and-slot connection (57, 58), that said shoulder (69) is engaged by the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) to commence producing longitudinal movement of the cycle-control lever (56) and the catch lever (20) to their respective manual and auto positions before the catch-lever lug (24), due to its movement to the auto position by the setting lever (17 reaches the manual-step shoulder (28) of the guide edge 26) of the mounting member (2); cycle-priming means (75, 76, 78, 79) actuated by the movement of the cycle-control lever 56) to its auto position to operate said trip means (311, 90) for initiating rotation of the cam wheel (7) for a change cycle; lost-motion coupling means (61, 62) coupling the stop lever (60) as regards its pivotal movement with the cycle-control lever (56); a pin-and-edge connection (79, 80) operating between the cycle-control lever (56) and the mounting member (2) when the cycle-control lever (56) is in its auto position, to limit angular movement of the cycle-control lever (56) about its fulcrum pin (57 against the action of its bias spring (59) and thus to prevent, through said lost-motion coupling means (61, 62), such movement of the stop lever (60) as would cause its lug (64) to enter the locking recess (65) of the pickup plate (33); unidirectionally acting pin-and-edge means (55, 58) operative to coupling the cyclecontrol lever (56) in its auto position with the release lever 46) for causing the movement of the release lever (46) which produces record-release movement of the record pawl (49) of such spindle (3) also to produce pivotal movement of the cycle-control lever (56) to lift the catch-lever lug (24) off the auto-step shoulder (29) of the guide edge (26); further pinand-edge means (55, 83) undirectionally operative in the direction opposite to that in which said unidirectionally acting pin-and-edge means (55, 58) operate, when the cycle-control lever (56) is in its manual position, to couple the cycle-control lever (56) with the release lever (46) for causing movement of the release lever (46) in the direction, and of the magnitude, which the absence of a record on said shoulder produces movement of the record pawl (49) of such spindle (3) away from the shoulder (39) of such spindle, to produce angular displacement of the cycle-control lever (56) operative to disengage the abutment shoulder (69) of the step (70) of the edge portion of the cycle-control lever (56) from the catch-lever lug (24) as the latter rests in engagement with the shoulder (28) of the manual step of the guide edge (26) of the mounting member (2) thus allowing the bias spring (59) to move the cycle-control lever (56) longitudinally towards its stop position to remove, after angular displacement of the cycle-control lever (56) in the opposite direction, the restraint, by the lost-motion connection (61, 62) between the cycle-control lever (56) and the stop lever (60), against pivotal movement of the latter for its lug (64) to engage the locking recess (65) of the pickup plate (33), while also causing the step (70), by its engagement with the catch-lever lug (24), to prevent the cycle-control lever spring (59) from producing such opposite angular displacement until, near the end of the cycle, opposite angular movement of the cycle-control lever (56) and consequential disengagement of the catch lever lug (24) from the manual shoulder (28) of the guide edge (26) is positively produced by engagement of the actuating portion (67) of the cam wheel (7 with the cam portion (66) of the stop lever (60) and transmission of the resultant stop-lever movement to the cycle-control lever (56) by the lost-motion connection (61, 62).

4. Mechanism as claimed in claim 3, wherein a portion (82) of the drive lever (42) is arranged to so cooperate with a portion (83) of the switch lever (14) as to temporarily restrain the resilient return of the switch lever (14) to its off position at the end of a change cycle. 

1. A gramophone record-changer mechanism comprising in combination a mounting member (2), a motor-driven, normally horizontal turntable (1) rotatably supported on said member (2); a cam wheel (7); means for coupling said cam wheel to be driven by the turntable (1) for individual change cycles of the mechanism; a pickup arm (4) pivotally movable towards and away from the turntable center about a vertical axis (5), a pickup plate (33) movable about said axis jointly with the pickup arm (4) and having a guide edge (74) terminating at a locking recess (65); a disengageable driving mechanism operable by the cam wheel (7) to move the pickup arm (4) towards and away from the turntable center, said driving mechanism including a friction connection, means for supporting a record spindle (3) to project upwardly from the center of the turntable (1) without participating in the rotation thereof, a release lever (46) cooperating with said cam wheel for yielding pivotal movement in a first direction from a central position at an early point of each change cycle and subsequent movement in a second direction, opposite to said first direction beyond said central position, a switch lever (14) having an on and an off position for the drive of said motor driven turntable (11); a manually operable setting lever (17) coupled to the switch lever (14) and having a manual, an auto, and a stop position for respectively selecting manual or automatic operation or cessation of operation of the mechanism; a catch lever (20) yieldingly attached to the switch lever (14) and having a lug (24), the mounting member (2) being formed with a guide edge (26) having receding steps forming retaining shoulders (28, 29) for cooperation with said lug (24) to prevent reverse movement of the switch lever (14) and the setting lever (17) when the setting lever (17) during movement away from its stop position reaches the manual and auto positions respectively; spring means (30) urging the catch lever (20) into engagement with the said guide edge (26) said retaining shoulders being so inclined as to lift the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) up the steps of the guide edge (26) against the bias of the spring means (30) when the setting lever (17) is manually moved in the direction from its auto position via its manual position to its stop position, a stop lever (60) having a stop lug (64) adapted to enter, by pivotal movement of the stop lever (60) the locking recess (65) of the pickup plate (33) when the pickup arm (4) is in a position of rest outsiDe to turntable, bias spring means (63) urging the stop lever (60) in the direction of such engagement, control means (66, 67) associated with the cam wheel (7) and operative to prevent such pivotal movement of the stop lever (60) during the initial stages of each change cycle; a cycle-control lever (56) connected to said mounting member by a pin-and-slot connection (57, 58) for pivotal movement about the pin (57) and longitudinal sliding movement along the slot (58) of said connection to permit longitudinal displacement of the cyclecontrol lever (56) between a stop position, a manual position, and an auto position in a direction forming a small angle with the mean direction of said guide edge (26), the cycle-control lever (56) having an edge portion (170) which faces the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) at the same side of the lug (24) as said guide edge (26), said edge portion (170) including a step (70) forming an abutment shoulder (69) that faces towards the stop position of the catch-lever lug (24) spring means (59) urging the cycle-control lever (56) longitudinally towards the off position and pivotally into contact of its said edge portion with the catch-lever lug (24) of the abutment shoulder (69) of the said step (70) being so positioned that when the cycle-control lever (56) is held by its spring (59) at its stop position determined by engagement of the pivot pin (57) for the cycle-control lever (56) with the end of the slot (58) of the said pin-and-slot connection (57, 58), said shoulder (69) is engaged by the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) to commence producing longitudinal movement of the cycle-control lever (56) towards its manual and auto positions before the catch-lever lug (24), due to movement of the switch lever (14) from its off position by the setting lever (17), reaches the manual-step shoulder (28) of the guide edge (26) of the mounting member (2); cycle-priming means (75, 76, 78, 79) actuated by the movement of the cycle-control lever (56) to its auto position to initiate rotation of the cam wheel (7) for a change cycle; lost-motion coupling means (61, 62) coupling the stop lever (60) as regards its pivotal movement with the cycle-control lever (56) to prevent when the cycle-control lever (56) is in either of its auto and manual positions pivotal movement of the stop lever (60) to engage the pickup-plate locking recess (65) by its stop lug (64); unidirectionally acting pin-and-edge means (55, 58) operative to coupling the cyclecontrol lever (56) in its auto position with the release lever (46) for causing the movement of the release lever (46) in said second direction to produce pivotal movement of the cycle-control lever (56) to lift the catch-lever lug (24) of the auto-step shoulder (29) of the guide edge (26); further pin-and-edge means (55, 83) unidirectionally operative when the cycle-control lever (56) is in its manual position to couple the cycle-control lever (56) with the release lever (46) for causing movement of the release lever (46) in said first direction, to produce angular displacement of the cycle-control lever (56) operative to disengage the abutment shoulder (69) of the step (70) of the edge portion (170) of the cycle-control lever (56) from the catchlever lug (24) as the latter rests in engagement with the shoulder (28) of the manual step of the guide edge (26) of the mounting member (2) thus allowing the spring means (59) to move the cycle-control lever (56) longitudinally towards its stop position to remove, after angular displacement of the cyclecontrol lever (56) in the opposite direction the restraint of the stop lever (60) against its pickup-locking pivotal movement, while also causing the step (70), by its engagement with the catch-lever lug (24), to prevent the cycle-control lever spring (59) from producing such opposite angular displacement until, near the end of the cycle, such opposite angular movement of the cycle-control lever (56) and consequential disengagement of the catch-lever lug (24) from the manual shoulder (28) of the guide edge (26) is positively produced by engagement of the actuating portion (67) of the cam wheel (7) with the cam portion (66) of the stop lever (60) and the transmission of the resultant stoplever movement to the cycle-control lever (56) by the lost-motion connection (61, 62).
 2. Mechanism as claimed in claim 1 which includes restraining means (82, 83) operative to control the return of the switch lever (14) under the action of its bias spring (30) from its on position to its off position.
 3. A gramophone record-changer mechanism comprising in combination a mounting member (2); a motor-driven normally horizontal turnable (1) rotatably supported on said member (2) and having a turntable pinion (8); a pickup arm (4) pivotally movable towards and away from the turntable center about a vertical axis (5); a pickup plate (33) movable about said axis jointly with the pickup arm (4) and having a guide edge (74) terminating at a locking recess (65); a disengageable driving mechanism operable to move the pickup arm (4) away from and towards the turntable center, said driving mechanism including a friction connection, a toothed cam wheel (7) mounted for driving engagement with said pinion (8) to control the change cycle of the mechanism, said cam wheel (7) having a first cam (40) for the actuation of said pickup-arm driving mechanism, a second cam (44), and an actuating portion (67) and having a gap in its toothed circumference to interrupt such driving engagement at the end of each change cycle; trip means (9, 31) operable to establish a drive from the pinion (8) to the cam wheel (7) during such interruption of engagement, means for supporting, to project upwardly from the center of the turntable (1) without participation in the rotation thereof, a record spindle (3) having a shoulder (39) at one side and equipped with a record-release and sensing pawl (49) mounted in the record spindle (3) for movement transversely of the spindle towards the shoulder (39) to release a record resting on the shoulder (39) for deposition on the turntable (1), and movement away from said shoulder to sense whether a record is present on said shoulder, a release lever (46) operable in one direction by said second cam (44); and spring means (30) urging said release lever (36) in the opposite direction for engagement with said second cam (44), said first cam (44) being so shaped as to allow the spring means (30) to actuate the release lever (46) for moving the sensing pawl (49) away from the shoulder (39) of such spindle (3) shortly after the beginning of a rotation cycle of the cam wheel (7) from a position in which such gap of the cam wheel faces the said pinion (8), and to actuate, shortly afterwards, the release lever (46) to move the sensing pawl (49) towards the said shoulder 39; switch lever (14) having an on and an off position for the turntable motor drive; a manually operable setting lever (17) having a manual, an auto and an off position for respectively selecting manual or automatic operation or cessation of operation of the mechanism; a two-element linkage (19, 20) interconnecting the setting lever (17) and the switch lever (14), said linkage including a catch lever (20) pivotally connected to the switch lever (14) and normally extending approximately tangentially to the direction of movement of its said pivot connection (22) to the switch lever, said catch lever having a lug (24), and the mounting member (2) having a guide edge (26) for cooperation with said lug (24) of the catch lever (20) to maintain the catch lever (20) in such approximately tangential position against the transversely directed component of the force transmitted to the catch lever by the setting lever (17) through the other element (19) of the linkage when the setting lever (17) is moved in the direction from its off position via its manual position to its auto position; spring means (30) urging the catch lever into engagement with the said guide edge (26), the guide edge having receding steps forming retaining shoulder (28, 29) for cooperation with the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) to oppose movement of the setting lever (17) and switch lever (14) towards their respective stop and off positions when the setting lever (17), during movement away from its stop position reaches its manual and auto positions respectively, said retaining shoulder (28, 24) being so inclined to the direction of said other link element (19) as to lift the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) up said retaining shoulder (28, 29) against the bias of the catch-lever spring (30) when the setting lever (17) is manually moved in the direction from its auto position via its manual position to its stop position; a stop lever (60) having a stop lug (64) adapted to enter, by pivotal movement of the stop lever (60), the locking recess (65) of the pickup plate (33) when the pickup arm (4) is in a position of rest outside the turntable; bias spring means (63) urging the stop lever (60) in the direction of such engagement, the stop lever (60) having a cam portion (66) cooperating with the actuating portion (67) of the cam wheel (7) between change cycles and during the initial stages of each change cycle to prevent the stop lever (60) from movement to effect such engagement; a cycle-control lever (56) connected to said mounting member by a pin-and-slot connection (57, 58) for pivotal movement about the pin (57) and sliding movement longitudinally of the cycle-control lever (56) along the slot (58) of said connection to permit longitudinal displacement of the cycle-control lever (56) between a stop position, a manual position, and an auto position in a direction forming a small angle with the mean direction of said guide edge, the cycle-control lever (56) having an edge portion (170) which faces the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) at the same side of the lug (24) as said guide edge, said edge portion (170) including a step (70) forming an abutment shoulder (69) that faces towards the stop position of the catch-lever lug (24); spring means (59) urging the cycle-control (56) longitudinally towards its stop position and pivotally into contact of its said edge portion (170) with the lug (24) of the catch lever (20), the abutment shoulder (69) of said step (70) being so positioned when the cycle-control lever (56) is held by its spring (59) at its stop position determined by engagement of the pivot pin (57) for the cycle-control lever (56) with the end of the slot (58) of the said pin-and-slot connection (57, 58), that said shoulder (69) is engaged by the lug (24) of the catch lever (20) to commence producing longitudinal movement of the cycle-control lever (56) and the catch lever (20) to their respective manual and auto positions before the catch-lever lug (24), due to its movement to the auto position by the setting lever (17), reaches the manual-step shoulder (28) of the guide edge (26) of the mounting member (2); cycle-priming means (75, 76, 78, 79) actuated by the movement of the cycle-control lever (56) to its auto position to operate said trip means (31, 90) for initiating rotation of the cam wheel (7) for a change cycle; lost-motion coupling means (61, 62) coupling the stop lever (60) as regards its pivotal movement with the cycle-control lever (56); a pin-and-edge connection (79, 80) operating between the cycle-control lever (56) and the mounting member (2) when the cycle-control lever (56) is in its auto position, to limit angular movement of the cycle-control lever (56) about its fulcrum pin (57) against the action of its bias spring (59) and thus to prevent, through said lost-motion coupling means (61, 62), such movement of the stop lever (60) as would cause its lug (64) to enter the locking recess (65) of the pickup plate (33); unidirectionally acting pin-and-edge means (55, 58) operative to coupling the cycle-control lever (56) in its auto position with the release lever (46) for causing the movement of the release lever (46) which produces record-release movement of the record pawl (49) of such spindle (3) also to produce pivoTal movement of the cycle-control lever (56) to lift the catch-lever lug (24) off the auto-step shoulder (29) of the guide edge (26); further pin-and-edge means (55, 83) unidirectionally operative in the direction opposite to that in which said unidirectionally acting pin-and-edge means (55, 58) operate, when the cycle-control lever (56) is in
 4. Mechanism as claimed in claim 3, wherein a portion (82) of the drive lever (42) is arranged to so cooperate with a portion (83) of the switch lever (14) as to temporarily restrain the resilient return of the switch lever (14) to its off position at the end of a change cycle. 